Chapter Six: Exploring And Discoveries

The five kids turned away from the cellar door and began to slowly walk down a small hallway. The walls had several rusty nails and blank square places where paintings must have covered the wall before. The green striped wallpaper was peeling in several places, and in others there were basketball-sized holes in the walls themselves. The inside of the house smelled like rotten wood and decay. The sound of the loud thunder could be heard outside the house.

Arnold led the way, followed closely by Gerald on his left and Helga in his right. Phoebe held Gerald's left arm tightly, though Gerald himself didn't mind it at all.Behind them, Eugene was still smiling in his optimistic way and humming that same annoying song that Earl tried to get them to sing with earlier. When Helga turned and gave him an especially annoyed look a moment later, the geek decided that he should be quiet after that.

At the end of the hallway was the front door. Arnold went over to try the doorknob, which pulled out of the rotten, termite-infested wood.

Helga snorted and said, "Now what, Arnold-o?"

Arnold dropped the doorknob, then looked over at the doorway on the right. "Let's try in there."

He led them into a large room that could only have been the living room. It looked even worse off than the hallway had. It was full of old broken furniture piled up on the far wall and more rotten furniture set up in the corners. The large picture windows close to the front door were both boarded up from the outside and all of the glass panes were long since broken by vandals. The only light in the room coming from the cracks between the planks and the flashes of lightning that could be seen. Those flashes cast uneven shadows all over the walls, which had more peeling wallpaper and missing pictures on them, except for one large picture over the mantle of the large fireplace. Arnold shined his light on it and saw that it was a picture of a man dressed in colonial period clothing holding a musket with a grim expression on his face. He suspected it was a picture of the original Wylie who fought during the Pig War.

The fireplace itself was blocked off by an old couch sitting in front of it. Yahoo soda and wine cooler bottles lay around it with more on the mantle, along with some melted candles, giving testimony to the fact that others had been in this room since the incident long ago. The blanket covering the top of the rotting and smelly couch and the soda bottles were other signs, even though the five nine-year-olds paid the latter little mind.

Arnold and Gerald both turned their flashlights around taking in all the cobwebs in the corners of the ceilings, the smell of wet and rotting wood, and the floor, which had a torn carpet on it and creaked in certain places loudly. Gerald looked hoped that the floor was still safe enough to walk on.

"This must be the room where the murders happened," Phoebe said in a terrified whisper. She cringed against Gerald's arm shuddering. "Phoebe, your nails are cutting into my arm, babe," Gerald said, wincing. She let up on her hold a little, blushing up at him.

Arnold shined the light up at the ceiling and saw a chandelier. It was rusting and empty of light fixtures, or light bulbs. A spider web with several huge black spiders hung from it. Nearby was a rotten hole in the ceiling with water leaking down onto the edge of the floor by the windows.

"Old man Wylie killed them all through the house and then hung up their bodies in this very room," Arnold said, almost in a whisper as he searched for any signs of this, looking at the floors for brown bloodstains.

"Hey, I though we were supposed to be trying to find a way out of this place?" Eugene said, looking at all of them a bit anxiously.

Gerald looked at Phoebe and said. "Here hold this a moment." He handed her his flashlight. Then together he and Arnold tried to open the latches on the broken windows to get to the planks boarding up the windows outside.

"Its no use, Gerald," Arnold said, as he finished struggling with the boards, which didn't move an inch. "They're nailed in too tight. I don't think we're going to get out here this way."

"I knew it. There's nothing in here but a bunch of old furniture and spider webs, no ghosts, no signs of foul play, no paranormal phenomenon or anything!" Helga said looking around, now holding Arnold's flashlight and frowning. "This is all just a big crock of -"

There was a flash of lightning from outside that again made the whole room flash unevenly with the shadows from the boarded up windows.

Phoebe's scream a moment later made all of them jump. Helga let out a small yell of her own and turned and looked at Phoebe, heart pounding in her chest. "Criminy, Feebs! What are you trying to do, give me a heart attack?!"

"Phoebe, what happened?" Arnold said, rushing over with Gerald, who stood on her other side looking concerned.

Phoebe was almost white with fear and she was trembling badly as she pointed a shaking finger at the portrait over the mantle. "The eyes! The eyes on the painting! They were moving and they looked right at me!" Gerald took the flashlight from Phoebe and turned it on the portrait. Helga did the same with Arnold's flashlight.

The painting looked exactly as it had when Arnold looked at it before. The eyes were as immobile as they had been before. They didn't look like they were moving at all.

Arnold turned to the smaller girl and tried to calm her. "Phoebe, it must be your imagination, I mean the shadows in the room and the lightning outside probably played tricks on the picture."

"No, Arnold! I saw them! They were red and they moved!" The small oriental girl said hysterically.

"Aw, get a grip, Phoebe!" Helga said, a bit less than as patient as Arnold had been. "It's just a stupid painting, watch." She picked up one of the Yahoo soda bottles off the floor and threw it at the painting hard. It hit and the painting vibrated from the impact. The bottle fell on the couch. A moment later, a loud wailing cry came from the wall where the painting was. All five of the kids all went wide-eyed and backed away from it.

"A-A-Arnold, did you hear what I just heard, man?" Gerald asked, his eyes never leaving the painting.

Arnold looked at the painting blinking and nodded, unable to speak. He didn't take his own eyes off of the painting as he reached down and found another Yahoo soda bottle. He tossed it at the painting. This time it bounced off back onto the floor, but no sound came from it. That didn't stop all of their hearts from pounding hard in their chests.

Gerald looked over at her and said, "Arnold, maybe we should try and find a way out of this place?" Phoebe -still clinging to Gerald's arm- nodded as well.

"For once I agree with Tall Hair Boy," Helga said, sounding a little bit uncertain now.

Then the five kids were distracted by another flash of lightning from outside. Again the old living room was lit up with uneven shadows. Only this time, there was another obstruction. It was the silhouette of a tall figure standing outside on the porch wearing a long coat and fisherman's hat.

Helga screamed in a loud, ear-piercing way. She turned and shined her light at the windows, however there was nothing there. "W-w-what was that?!" She practically shouted.

Arnold was by her side in a second and said, "It must have just been Curly outside on the porch." He sounded as if he were trying to assure himself as much as everyone else.

Just then, outside in the rumble of thunder they could hear the sounds of heavy footsteps on the porch. They sounded slow and almost heavier than someone of Curly's size could have managed.

Gerald walked over to the boarded up windows and looked out through a crack. "Hey Curly! Could you give us a hand here with these boards?" There was nothing to be seen outside other than darkness and rain pouring from the gutters.

Arnold boldly joined Gerald while Helga, Phoebe, and Eugene all huddled together behind them. Gerald shined his light into the hole.

"Curly, are you there?" Arnold asked, trying to see outside.

A second later, the half-rotten board just above Arnold's football-shaped head split right down the middle and a long arm popped out of the window from the outside. It was clad in a black rubber raincoat that was dripping wet. A hook was wrapped around it, slightly rusty but still gleaming in the light of Gerald's flashlight.

All five of the kids screamed. "IT'S OLD MAN WYLIE!" Gerald screamed and fell backwards over an empty soda bottle.

The arm swept down and pinned Arnold against the windows before he could back away as well. Arnold's eyes widened in fright as he was caught around the neck in a strong grip. He panicked and tried to grab the arm to struggle, but he couldn't get a good grip on the wet slicker. He almost felt like he couldn't breathe.

"ARNOLD!" Helga screamed, shaking all over in terror as she saw the arm go around the boy's neck. She nearly dropped the flashlight in shock. Her own fears gave way slightly to the fact that her beloved football-head was in danger. Not thinking of herself at the moment, Helga ran right at the arm and swung the hard end of the flashlight at the arm around Arnold's neck. "Let him go! Get off him!" She shouted, hitting the arm again and again.

Gerald reacted a second later and came to the aid of his best friend. He began hitting at it with his own flashlight as Helga was doing. The arm let go of Arnold, who dropped to the ground and backed away coughing. Phoebe and Eugene quickly grabbed his arms and pulled him away from the window.

There was a blood curdling shriek and the hooked arm took a wide swipe at Helga and Gerald, then withdrew into the gaping hole in the boarded window.

"Arnold! Man are you all right?" Gerald asked, rushing over to Arnold's side. He was followed closely by Helga, who stood on his other side, looking down at him in a panicky way. She looked on the verge of tears.

Arnold noticed this and nodded quickly. "I'm fine, I guess." He said breathlessly. He looked over at the window and his heart felt like it was going a thousand beats a minute. Arnold felt himself shaking. "Man, I thought I was a goner there."

Helga was slightly relieved to hear that. She was so afraid and everything happened so fast. She was struggling hard not to just break down and hug him right then and there when all of a sudden all around them a loud, high pitched cackling laugher could be heard.

The kids all turned their heads looking around. Arnold stood wide-eyed and unconsciously drawing closer to Helga. Gerald did the same with Phoebe, who grabbed his arm again. Eugene huddled between both sets of couples, shaking like a leaf in a high wind. Gerald and Helga's flashlight beams searching quickly for the source. The lightning flashing lit up the dimly lit surroundings once more but there was nothing, just the loud, insane laugher that seemed to be coming from all around them.

"YOU DARE TO TRESPASS ON ME ISLAND ON THIS NIGHT?!" The voice boomed all around them, the sound giving all of them goosebumps. "NOW YER BONES WILL BE JOINING THE OTHERS DEEP UNDER THIS HOUSE! FOREVER! AH HA HA HA HA HA!"

"ARNOLD! LOOK!" Gerald screamed, his flashlight shining up at the ceiling where the brass chandelier began to shake and then wobble up and down on its chain.

"THE PICTURE!" Phoebe shouted again, pointing at the picture on the wall, which now had moving eyes staring down at them sinisterly.

Then the boards on the window where the arm had popped in before burst inward one at a time. There was a flash of lightning which revealed a tall, rain-covered figure in a black fisherman's raincoat covered in what looked like seaweed. The figure's head was covered in a matching hat that made him looked like something off of a package of fish sticks. They couldn't see his face, except for a pair of glowing red eyes that made the hideous figure all the more terrifying. He raised his left arm and a shining hook gleamed.

It was the dreaded and unholy ghost of Old Man Wylie himself coming for revenge.

The kids all screamed at the top of their lungs and ran out of the room at top speed as if their lives depended on it . . . which it did!

To Be Continued . . .

Finally, the dreaded Old Man Wylie has returned to claim his vengeance on these trespassers. OH NO! What are our young heroes going to do? What happened to Curly? Where is Captain Earl? How will they escape from this nightmare! You don't want to miss the next chapter coming soon! Read and Review! -D.R.